


Resolutions

by OdeToPedrazar (MyPrivateLaughter)



Series: Five Friends and Francis [1]
Category: Nothing Much to Do
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-01
Updated: 2015-01-01
Packaged: 2018-03-04 17:50:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3077297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyPrivateLaughter/pseuds/OdeToPedrazar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><b>5 friends, 4 weeks, 1 Vauxhall Astra named Francis.</b><br/>Road Trip AU: Beatrice, Benedick, Hero, Pedro and Balthazar are off on a road trip around the UK. High jinks ensue.<br/>Will they survive four weeks at merry war in a cramped hire car? Will their journey not only be physical but also mental, emotional and spiritual?? Only time will tell.<br/><i>AU post-NMTD if ‘Love Gods’ hadn't happened (ie. Ben/Bea and Pedro/Balth are not together … yet)</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Resolutions

“Remind me again whose idea this was?” Beatrice demanded loudly.

Hero, Pedro and Balthazar glanced to Benedick who held up his hands. “What?”

They were all sitting on their suitcases in a corner of Amsterdam airport waiting for a delayed connecting flight. On New Year’s Day. Pedro was scrunched within the pile of baggage grumpily nursing a hangover and Balthazar hadn’t slept for over twenty-four hours, hated flying and so far had only spoken in monosyllables since they met in Auckland airport that morning.

“This is the worst!” Beatrice sighed, leaning back, folding her arms and glaring at Benedick.

“Yes,” Benedick acquiesced, “our holiday was my fantastic idea but who was it that booked the flights for New Years day?”

“Oh!” Beatrice laughed disbelievingly. “You’re really going to bring the Aunties into this?”

“Yes,” Hero agreed, “You still haven’t paid Mum back for the tickets Ben, so I don’t think you should -”

“Alright, alright!” Benedick sighed. “Obviously it’s not their fault.”

“So you’re admitting that it is _all your fault_ ,” Beatrice clarified.

“Yes. It’s all my fault that we’re going to get to travel around Britain together. I’m ever so sorry, Beatrice, what an awful idea of mine.”

“Please, god, please…” Pedro suddenly groaned. “ _Please_ stop. Someone please make them shut up.”

“I have an idea,” Hero chirped up, naturally the only one who didn’t seem to be having an awful time. “We could talk about our New Years Resolutions.”

“Never to drink again,” Pedro grumbled.

“We could have resolutions for our trip. It’s going to be four weeks, right? What should we have to do in that time?”

“Learn how to speak proper English?” Benedick suggested.

“Ugh,” Beatrice immediately groaned. “I hate that idea that England has the monopoly on the correct way to speak English. It’s so pretentious!”

“Yes, well,” Benedick bit back, “the clue is in the name, darling. [“ _Darling?!”_ ] England. We’re _English_. We invented the language so I think -”

“I know what Ben’s resolution should be,” Balthazar said, and everyone was so surprised to finally hear him speak that they actually stopped to listen. “To not make any snarky comments to Bea at all, like the whole time we’re travelling.”

There was a chorus of enthusiastic agreement to this suggestion. “Yes!” Pedro said in his commanding ‘I am your Captain’ voice, drowning out Benedick’s protests. “It’s happening. Four weeks of no snark or we’ll chuck you out of the rental car and leave you somewhere in the English countryside.”

“How does Balthy get to choose _my_ resolution?” Benedick protested.

“Why don’t we all choose them for each other?” Hero suggested. “Like Balthazar, I think this trip would be good for you to practice just chatting to new people. It would help you get to know more people, you know, be less reserved.”

“Nah, nah,” Balthazar grinned. “My reservedness is fine. I don’t want to chat.”

“Yeah, don’t make him chat,” Pedro piped up. “He’s fine.”

Hero shrugged. “I’m just saying you should have to instigate conversations or something with people that we meet.”

Beatrice nodded in agreement. “Actually, I think that’s a good one. Balthazar has to start a conversation with a stranger every day.”

“ _Every_ day?” Balthazar grimaced.

“Yeah,” Benedick agreed. “Excellent pay back for my terrible resolution.”

Beatrice started giggling to herself. “I have a great one for Pedro!”

Pedro suddenly remembered his hangover and put his head in his hands. “What?”

“Everywhere we go, when we talk to people in like Scotland or Yorkshire or whatever, you have to mimic their accent back to them really offensively.”

Everyone laughed. “No!” Hero cried. “That’s awful!”

“Ok, ok,” Beatrice said. “How about he has to make a really bad pun every day, but like really straight faced. That would be funny.”

“Yup!” Pedro agreed. “I’ll take that! A pun a day I can do. Can I choose Hero’s?”

“Oh no.” Hero looked nervous.  
“Every day _you_ have to say something negative.”

“What?” she laughed.

“I mean, I know you must have these thoughts like ‘the weathers awful’ or ‘this food is disgusting’ but somewhere in that mind full of marshmallows and rainbows they get coated in honey before reaching your lips. I think you should have to say one genuinely negative thing that you really believe every day.”

“Oh my god, I love it!” Beatrice cried over Hero’s quiet protests of ‘no, no… no…’ “This is going to be the best holiday!”

But her joy quickly faded when Benedick declared, “It seems as if the only one left without a resolution is you, my dear Beatrice,” with a wide grin on his face.

“ _My dear_?”

“And the only one left to make one is me.” He cackled wildly, a slightly manic look in his eyes.

“Oh, well that’s not fair!” Beatrice complained. “I’m not being given a resolution from ‘the Dick’!”

“No snark to Ben all month!” Benedick said so quickly it came out almost as one word.

Beatrice sighed. “Oh, that’s cheating, surely.”

“Yeah, you can’t have the same resolution,” Pedro agreed.

“Fine,” Benedick sulked then said, “I know! Hero is too positive but Bea has the opposite problem. Instead during the trip she has to be positive about everything.”

“ _What_?”

“No, she has to say ‘yes’ to everything. Like if one of my relatives offers her haggis or if someone in a hostel wants to climb Ben Nevis with her -”

“Ugh! Are you kidding?”

Pedro, Hero and Balthazar were all laughing though.  
“Yeah, I love it!” Hero said.

“It’s decided,” Pedro agreed. “Everyone has their resolutions now.”

“Mine is by _far_ the worst,” Beatrice complained.

Balthazar shook his head. “No, mine is awful.”

And they spent the next forty-five minutes debating who had come out worse off until finally their flight flickered up on the screen.

“East Midlands! Boarding!” Hero cried and they jumped to their feet, grabbing their bags.

“Do you need a hand?” Pedro asked as Balthazar struggled to pick up his oversized bag.

There wasn’t anything particularly odd about one friend offering another help but the look that Balthazar gave him made Pedro’s stomach constrict uncomfortably.

Yes, it was true, Pedro had done the cowardly thing in pretending he’d been too drunk to remember what had happened last night. And the mildly accusatory look in Balthazar’s eyes made Pedro pretty sure that this claim hadn’t been entirely believed.

Balthazar hitched his bag up and turned away from Pedro without saying a word. Pedro watched him go for a moment with a sick feeling that had nothing to do with a hangover.

This was going to be an interesting few weeks…

**Author's Note:**

> Yey! Lovely Little Ficlets! HAPPY NEW YEAR  
> Not sure if anyone will read this as there is going to be SO MUCH NMTD FANFICTION NOW :D <3 <3  
> But if you did read it I hope you like the concept! Different days will focus on different ships and POVs. Totally planned out so fingers crossed!


End file.
